When going on a long visit to a prisoner, relatives hope to bring with them food, hygiene items, clothes and other household items that will at least slightly brighten up the prisoner’s dull official environment.
The desire to pamper a loved one is understandable, but, alas, it is not always achievable. Keep in mind that not everything is allowed to be carried in according to the rules of correctional institutions. There are a number of nuances that are best taken into account before you start packing your bags. Otherwise, there is a risk of coming to the inspection with prohibited items. We'll tell you how to avoid this and still get to the date.
Waiting room
Once on the territory of the correctional institution, the first thing all relatives who have come for a long-term visit to the prisoner find themselves in is the waiting room.
Perhaps this is the most unpleasant stage, because sometimes the queue of people who want to quickly be alone with the convicted person is quite large, and it is simply impossible to speed up the meeting process. Now in all colonies they are trying to arrange waiting rooms with maximum comfort, because elderly parents of prisoners and wives with small children spend their time here. Relatives and friends of prisoners have to spend several hours in this room. Therefore, in “decent” colonies, comfortable chairs are placed there, refrigerators, air conditioners and coolers with clean drinking water are installed, TVs and DVD players are installed. In some colonies, waiting rooms are equipped with play corners for children, so that the children have something to occupy themselves with.
Long term date
A long-term date is provided to those discussed. Such a meeting takes place in the premises provided for this purpose on the territory of the prison, where the visitor and the prisoner have the opportunity to communicate, eat, wash and sleep. A long-term date takes place without constant supervision and usually lasts one day.
The prison management provides the prisoner with at least one long-term visit within six months. You can meet with your spouse, father, mother, grandparent, child, stepparent, stepchild, stepfather or stepmother, brother or sister. Long-term visits with the de facto spouse are permitted provided that the spouses have children together or their life together lasted at least two years before the start of serving the sentence.
An application for a long-term visit is submitted by the prisoner no later than one month before the desired date of the visit.
The decision to grant permission is made by the Deputy Director of the Prison Department within two weeks of the submission of the application. Information about the refusal is communicated to the prisoner and visitor within three working days after the decision is made. Based on satisfied requests, a monthly schedule of visits is drawn up.
The prison may refuse permission if there are grounds to doubt the reputation of the meeting participant, if a meeting has already taken place within six months, or if a long-term meeting poses a risk to the security of the prison or the health of its participants.
Long-term visits are not permitted to prisoners in the reception ward, prisoners in an open prison, or prisoners placed in a punishment cell to serve a disciplinary sentence.
Upon arrival for a long visit and upon return from it, prison service officers search the person who came on the date and his belongings (this also applies to children). Items prohibited in prison must be deposited in a designated place before being sent on a prison visit. To detect prohibited items, the Prison has the right to search a person and his belongings using technical devices and a service dog. When interacting with a dog, you must follow the instructions of the employee with the dog. It is forbidden to touch the dog or otherwise attract its attention (whistle, offer treats, etc.). When arriving for a long visit, a person must consider the need to completely undress in the presence of a prison officer of the same sex as the person arriving for the prison visit. Complete undressing is carried out in a separate room, ensuring the privacy of the person arriving for the prison visit. A prison service officer will check the clothing and shoes of the person arriving for a prison visit and will conduct a visual inspection of the entire body to ensure that there are no illegal substances or items hidden on it. When searching children, the prison service officer takes into account the child's developmental level. The search is carried out in cooperation with the adult accompanying the child. During the entire search procedure, the instructions of the prison service officer must be followed.
If a person arriving for a prison visit refuses to be searched (including a search of a child) or to place his belongings in storage, the person is not allowed to attend the prison visit.
During a long-term visit, the visitor and the prisoner are fed the food offered in the prison, and the method and menu are chosen by the prison. If you bring a minor child on a date, you can take with you special food, items and toys necessary to care for them. You can take with you to the visiting room, in small quantities, juice, coffee, tea, cream, sweetener, lemonade, water, cookies, chocolate, potato chips, nuts, fresh and dried fruits, yogurt or other products supplied by the prison.
The visitor may take with him on a date a reasonable amount of clothing and cosmetics necessary for his own use, a comb, a toothbrush and medications he takes, as well as a reasonable amount of photographs. Photos cannot be in an album. Cosmetics must fit into one transparent plastic bag with a volume of 1 liter; the volume of one package can be up to 100 ml.
The availability of hygiene products during visits is ensured by the prison. Female visitors may bring sanitary pads or tampons.
If a visitor brings medication, the prison has the right to request a medical certificate. Before entering the visiting premises, medications should be deposited with an official who will bring medications to the visitor as needed.
You cannot take smoking equipment with you.
If the visitor, after the end of the date, does not want to take with him the things that he took with him on the date, then these things are destroyed.
Expenses for a visit are considered to be expenses for the use of the premises, food for the visitor and provision of hygiene items. The prison calculates the costs of food and hygiene products for long-term visits as they arise, based on the number of hygiene items issued. The costs of a long-term visit are paid by the prisoner or visitor.
When coming on a date, you must have an identification document with you.
If a long-term visit is paid for by a visitor, then the person transfers the amount of expenses for the visit three working days before the long-term visit to the prison account or makes payment on the spot with a bank card. It is imperative to notify the official responsible for the date of your desire to make payment through a bank account.
Recipient: Ministry of Finance, Swedbank EE932200221023778606, EE891010220034796011, Nordea Bank EE701700017001577198, Danske Bank EE403300333416110002.
In the explanation, indicate: Payment for the use of permission for a long-term visit.
Reference number: indicate the reference number of the prison in which the prisoner is located. Prison reference numbers: Viru Prison 2100077944, Tallinn Prison 2100011913, Tartu Prison 2100012093.
Long-term visits are regulated by Articles 25 and the Prison Law, as well as Articles 40-46 of the Minister of Justice Decree No. 72 of November 30, 2000, “Prison Internal Regulations”. Both legal acts are available in the electronic version of Riigi Teataja.
Product List for Long-Term Date Visitors
Based on part 31 of Art. 46 of the Prison Internal Regulations, a visitor may take with him on a visit a small amount of the following goods purchased in the prison store:
- juice,
- coffee,
- tea,
- coffee cream,
- sweetener,
- lemonade,
- I'll think
- cookie,
- chocolate,
- potato chips,
- nuts,
- dried and fresh fruits,
- yogurt.
In addition, the prison allows you to buy and take with you:
- lactose free yogurt,
- cottage cheese (packed),
- curd cheeses,
- instant baby porridge,
- kefir,
- milk,
- honey,
- instant cocoa.
If, after the end of the date, the visitor does not want to take with him the things that he took with him on the date and which remained unused, then these things are destroyed.
NB! The visitor has the right to take small quantities of food into the visiting room, which must fit into two bags issued in the store for packaging the goods.
Paperwork
Well, you've waited your turn. Now you need to write an application for a date. Then you will be required to present a passport, provide documents on relationship, as well as health certificates (a certificate of absence of Covid will be mandatory in the current situation). Read about all the documents for long-term dates here. Checking these “pieces of paper” may take another hour or more. After checking the documents, guests are sent to pay for the date at the company's cash desk.
Dishes
Usually there is one in the room for long meetings, but for the purposes of personal hygiene many people bring their own. It is optimal if the tableware is disposable (made of plastic), since glass is not allowed everywhere, especially in high-security infrared. And you are unlikely to want to spend limited time on banal washing of dishes.
Typically, the meeting room has a refrigerator, stove, electric kettle, frying pans and pots - you can cook. But you will have to forget about the possibility of bringing knives and forks through the inspection point. If necessary, a colony employee will give them to you, but this is not always done and not everywhere.
Checkpoint checkpoint
Another unpleasant event that everyone who comes for a long visit to the colony will have to go through. Especially if you are the mother or wife of a convicted person.
At the checkpoint, arrivals hand over documents, phones, SIM cards, flash drives, chargers, cameras, money, and jewelry. All this is strictly prohibited from being brought into a prisoner’s hotel.
Guests are thoroughly searched, and these searches can be civilized or very harsh. In some men's colonies, women are forced to strip down to their underwear for a full body search. Such measures are used in those colonies where prisoners often have prohibited items after meetings with relatives. This procedure is extremely unpleasant for any person, but you need to be mentally prepared for such a possibility.
What determines the duration of a date?
First of all, you need to find out from the prisoner himself or the prison authorities what type of visits is allowed. Usually they are divided into two types: short-term and long-term dates. The duration of the meeting depends on the following factors:
- what type of sentence the prisoner is serving;
- what type of prison (general, strict or special regime). This determines how many dates are allowed per month;
- the behavior of the convicted person (whether there are merits or punishments);
- permission from the prison authorities.
Bag search room
The FSIN inspector will inspect all the products, things and household items you brought. Various methods are used for this: piercing, opening the package, cutting or breaking, pouring and pouring. In theory, such a check can either be random or carried out if there is a clear suspicion that you may bring prohibited items into the correctional facility. But, since relatives of convicts show miracles of ingenuity in order to smuggle the same mobile phone or narcotic substances to their loved ones, all these actions of inspectors are completely justified.
The sausage and apples will be cut first - they most often hide a charger or a knife there. Be prepared to be forced to pour all liquids (food or hygiene) from factory containers into plastic bags, break cigarettes and chocolate bars, cut food into pieces and even open canned food.
❌ After all the agonizing expectations and checks, do not be surprised if you only manage to see the convicted person by lunchtime. This time will still fully count towards one of the three days of the date. These are the rules. ❌
